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Thursday, January 2, 2014

Seeking support for GKV Trust

The two most important events of my 2013-14 running season are the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2014 on 19th January 2014 and Boston marathon on 21st April 2014. SCMM is the marquee marathon event in India which I have enjoyed running every year since 2004. The Boston marathon is an aspiration for every marathon runner and I have been fortunate enough to be able to qualify and register for the 2014 edition. However, a key reason why these two marathons are critical to me is that I am running them this year to raise funds for the children of Gita Krishnamurthy Vidyalaya - a school in Sankarnagar, Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu that provides English medium education to children of socially and economically backward families in the region with no cost to them. The school, which is administered jointly by Sri Jai Sankara Educational Trust and GKV Trust, was started in June 2009 and currently has 420 children from classes LKG to 5. 52% of the children are girls and over 75% of children come from families having income of less than Rs 40,000 per year. The goal is to add one class every year till class 10.

The school is named after Mrs. Gita Kirshnamurthy - a dedicated teacher (who has taught at Mothers International School,Delhi,Cathedral School,Mumbai and La Martiniere, Calcutta) who passed away due to cancer in 2002.

The school currently operates from two rented buildings. Construction of a 11,000 sft permanent school building with all amenities comparable to any mainstream school has commenced in October 2013 and is planned to be completed by June 2014. So far the school is supported by endowments and donations from family and close friends. We are now seeking support from all well wishers to help us with the operating expenses and building construction expenses. My target is to raise Rs 3 Lakhs by April 2014. I am personally involved with GKV school as a trustee since 2010 and have seen first hand the tremendous progress that the school has enabled for numerous first generation school goers. The energy and enthusiasm of the children to learn is quite amazing. Being a zero overhead trust I guarantee that 100% of the contribution will be used towards the school expenses. Update of activities in the school is available here.

Contributions in support of the school and the children can be made to GKV trust either via check or online bank transfer. Contributions in INR are eligible for tax benefit under section 80G of the IT act. Donation of any amount is welcome and will help us tremendously. Details of amounts towards specific operating and building expenses as well as bank account details are available here. As I train hard for the two races to meet my timing goals I look forward to generous support from friends and family to help me achieve my fund raising target as well!!